Popular follows the joys, miseries and "social fascism" of golden kids and misfits at fictional Kennedy High. Brooke McQueen is the pom-pom queen ("How many calories are there in a grape?"), and Sam McPherson is the prickly, aspiring journalist ("Popularity is just conformity"). The girls' hostility erupts like a volcanic zit, yet they have much in common: they're both clever, compassionate and hobbled by insecurity. There's also a feud between a football coach and a drama teacher, with one guileless jock caught between them. And there's an androgynous female teacher (whom the students call "sir"), with a stream of withering putdowns. There aren't any Glee-ful fantasy song sequences, but music still bubbles through the show's veins.

The tone swings between poignant (the anguish of the fat girl rejected by the cheerleaders) and giddily comic (schemer Nicole and frenetic heiress Mary Cherry are deliciously played). However, the show didn't prove much of a launch pad for the cast's careers: none has exactly become a major screen fixture. Murphy, on the other hand, created Nip/Tuck before Glee.

Although sharp, Popular has the awkward datedness of the recent past: it's nigglingly just out of time, and not yet old enough to be a historical document. Teen fashions and heroes change. Would anyone now say: "I'm worshipping your Gwynethness"? But what still chimes is Popular's nuanced portrayal of the eternal youthful quest for affirmation and acceptance.